CCMP - Climate Change Modelling and Policy

Summary This paper is based on empirical research on a taxonomy of technologicalenvironmental innovations. It draws on a databank with over 500 examples of newtechnologies (materials, products, processes and practices) which come with benignenvironmental effects. The approaches applied to interpreting the datasets areinnovation life cycle analysis, and product chain analysis. Main results include thefollowing:1. Innovations merely aimed at eco-efficienc y do in most cases not represent significantcontributions to improving the properties of the industrial metabolism. This can betterbe achieved by technologies that fulfill the criteria of eco-consistency (metabolicconsistency), also called eco-effectiveness.2. Ecological pressure of a technology is basically determined by its conceptual make-up and design. Most promising thus are technologies in earlier rather than later stages oftheir life cycle (i.e. during R&D and customisation in growing numbers), because it isduring the stages